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How to track phone and email clicks in Tag Manager

Live guide · Checked 28 October 2026 · Updated 28 October 2026 · Checked every week against Google Tag Manager's own help pages

Count every tap on your phone number and email address as a lead in GA4 and Google Ads, with the number or address that was used.

Time
15 minutes
You will need
  • Google Tag Manager on your site
  • Phone numbers as tel: links and emails as mailto: links
Stuck?
Troubleshooting or ask us a question

Step by step

  1. Check your links

    Your phone number must be a link like <a href="tel:+441131234567"> and your email like <a href="mailto:hello@example.com">. Plain text can't be tracked.

  2. Turn on the click variables

    In Tag Manager open Variables > Configure (built-in) and tick Click URL and Click Text.

  3. Make the phone trigger

    Triggers > New > Click - Just Links. Choose Some Link Clicks and set Click URL starts with tel:. Name it Click - phone.

  4. Make the email trigger

    Make another Click - Just Links trigger: Click URL starts with mailto:. Name it Click - email.

  5. Push them into the dataLayer

    To keep every platform on one event, add a Custom HTML tag fired by both triggers:

    HTML
    <script>
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
  window.dataLayer.push({
    event: 'generate_lead',
    form_id: '{{Click URL}}'.indexOf('tel:') === 0 ? 'phone-click' : 'email-click',
    lead_type: '{{Click URL}}'.indexOf('tel:') === 0 ? 'call' : 'email',
    value: 30,
    currency: 'GBP',
    lead_id: 'L-' + Date.now()
  });
</script>

    Your GA4, Google Ads and Meta lead tags on CE - generate_lead now count calls and emails too.

  6. Test on a phone-sized screen

    In Preview, click the number. On a desktop the browser may ask which app to use: cancel it, the click still counts. Check generate_lead fired with lead_type call.

  7. Publish

    Submit and Publish. In GA4, the lead_type parameter splits calls, emails and forms.

Tips from people who set these up every week

  • A tap isn't a finished call. For real call tracking, add Google Ads call extensions or a call tracking tool on top.
  • If your number is in the header on every page, value calls a little lower than forms: some taps are people checking the number.

Troubleshooting: questions and answers

Clicks on the number don't fire.

Check the link really is tel: (not tel://) and that Click URL is ticked in built-in variables. Some themes add the number with JavaScript after the page loads: the trigger still works if the final link is tel:.

Official help pages

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